Keynote tip #2 - look the audience in the eyes and go infrared!

There is one thing that really turn a Keynote presentation in a success, and that is being able to talk directly to the audience while the slide is projected in the background. In a few word the trick is to know your presentation by heart and never turn your back to the audience while presenting. 

I have been attending many presentations where the speaker was looking at the text on he slide and reading it loud. 

This is non sense because the content of the slide is already there, and there is no need to repeat it twice. In my presentations I am always re enforcing the message already present on the slide using alternative information, and while I am doing so I am always facing the audience to try to see if there is any message that is not understood properly.

Of course I always have the preview of the current and next slide on my laptop screen so I always know what is projected on the main screen.

In my presentations I am always walking around , when possible. as this makes me more connected to the people listening to me.

Because of this I never use the manual slide advance ( using the space bar on the keyboard ) because I always hovering around.

The Apple remote control shipped with all the machines is not really my cup of tea as it requires that you are pretty close to the machine, when you are operating it.

It is cool to use it with Front Row  but it really sucks if you are more than 4 meters away ; furthermore the remote is very very directional , so you need really to point at your laptop to make it work.

I have been using so far the Genius Wireless Pointer and I am extremely happy with it. I can go as far as 10 meters away from the laptop and the remote will always trig the desired command. The unit sports programmable keys so you can even use it in conjunction with other apps  I usually run together with Keynote, such as  Mouspose'.

The unit comes with an USB Infrared receiver key that you need to plug in your laptop to make the unit work.

One final tip, if you use the Genius Wireless Pointer , always remove the batteries when you are not using it,  as the device does not have an on off led and sometimes you might leave it on unintentionally.